Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

July 19, 2012

(NaturalNews) The American Dietetic Association (ADA), which refers to itself as "the world's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals," has launched a new attack on freedom of health speech that seeks to criminalize the giving of nutritional or counseling advice by individuals that are not officially licensed by the ADA or one of its state-level prototypes -- and the ADA is covertly attempting to accomplish this goal by quietly passing restrictive licensing laws in all 50 U.S. states.

Clearly on a downward spiral into total nutritional irrelevancy, the ADA as an organization is being slowly overtaken by competition from unlicensed nutritionists, holistic practitioners, and even ordinary bloggers with a powerful story to tell, all of which are now being taken far more seriously by those looking for legitimate nutrition advice than are many ADA-certified dietitians. So to artificially preserve its very existence, the ADA is now trying to legislate its way to a total nutritional monopoly.

Many NaturalNews readers will remember the story of Steve Cooksey, the North Carolina blogger who was recently targeted by the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition (NCBDN) for sharing information with his readers about how the Paleolithic diet, also known as the "Paleo" diet, helped cure his diabetes. NCBDN tried to claim that, under state law, Cooksey's nutritional free speech was illegal, and insinuated that he would have to significantly alter his blog in order to avoid prosecution. (http://www.naturalnews.com)

According to North Carolina state law, which is among the most restrictive in the nation, an individual is prohibited from providing "nutrition care services" without an official license. Nutrition care services, according to NCBDN, can constitute assessing the nutritional needs of an individual or group; establishing priorities, goals, and objectives to meet these assessed nutritional needs; providing nutrition counseling in health and disease; and developing, implementing, and managing nutrition care systems.

The law basically implies that any unlicensed person who gives specific nutritional advice to another person, or who helps another person develop an eating plan to achieve better health, for instance, is in violation of the law and subject to prosecution. And it is precisely this type of monopoly on giving health advice that the ADA is seeking to achieve nationwide by criminalizing nutritional free speech at the state level in every U.S. state.

An internal ADA document recently leaked to Forbes and the Alliance for Natural Health - USA (ANH-USA) by Judy Stone, Executive Director of the Michigan Nutrition Association (MNA), a consumer advocacy group, contains the blueprints for how the ADA plans to seize control of nutrition across America.

Far from having anything to do with protecting the health and safety of the public, the ADA's number one priority, according to its own literature, is simply to preserve its own existence. And one of its strategies for achieving this is to have registered dietitians (RDs) and dietetic technicians, registered (DTRs) file complaints against unlicensed individuals like Steve Cooksey who are helping people nutritionally without the state's permission.

Since not enough actual members of the public are filing complaints against the ADA's unlicensed competitors -- millions of Americans are actually achieving real results in improving their health by not following the misguided advice of the ADA, and instead choosing the advice of the ADA's competitors -- the ADA's minions have to file their own phony complaints in order to perpetuate the illusion that state licensing boards are necessary to protect public health.

"Since all too often state dietetics boards receive few (or no) complaints alleging violations, one is led to conclude either that (a) few, if any, violations are occurring in these states and licensing is not necessary or (b) violations are occurring, but are not being reported," says the ADA document. "If the latter scenario is accurate, dietitians and others benefiting from licensure must be more vigilant in identifying and reporting violations."

ADA advocates spying on citizens who provide nutritional advice publicly without a license

Besides pushing for the passage of stricter state licensing laws and encouraging its members to file more complaints against unlicensed nutritional advice-givers, the ADA is also recommending that its RDs and DTRs spy on the citizenry, and report any behavior or speech that could be construed as a violation of dietitian licensing acts.

The purpose for this, as outlined by Michael Ellsberg at Forbes, is to maintain ADA's total monopoly on nutrition by creating and upholding unnecessary and unconstitutional barriers to entry into the profession (licensing), and restricting the supply of available practitioners in order to maintain a high cost of services (high salaries for licensed dietitians).

If the ADA has its way, the only allowable nutritional advice will be that dispensed by the likes of hospital RDs, who believe that things like artificially-flavored gelatin and white bread are nutritious foods. This is why the natural health community cannot allow the ADA to achieve its sinister goal of nutritional takeover.

Be sure to read the entire ADA document, including pages 7-8 which list state-by-state licensing laws and requirements:http://www.reallyeatright.org